Mao Asada takes gold at Skate America despite a fall

Japan’s Mao Asada, 23, won the first Grand Prix competition of the year. Korea’s Kim Yu-na,23, did not join the competition due to injury.

Asada finished with 204.55 points after scoring 73.18 points in the short program and 131.37 in the free skate. She beat America’s Ashley Wagner (193.81) and Russia’s Elena Radionova (183.95).

Asada said after her performance, “I’m not completely satisfied with my performance today.” She got 200 points for the first time in this season but she made three mistakes in the free skate. She fell on a triple axel and was penalized with a wrong edge take-off and under-rotation on her triple Lutz. She ranked second in technical element score (TES) among 10 figure skaters but gained 69.54 points in program components score (PCS), 3.53 points higher than Wagner. The Chicago Tribune and other media outlets said, “She had many mistakes in jumps. Her competitors simply did worse than her.”